Strengthening our Democracy

One Person, One Vote

Presidential Elections
The way we choose our President needs to be radically redesigned to elect a leader that has the support of the people. The current structure of the presidential election does not incentivize voter participation, allows a candidate who did not win a majority, or even a plurality, of the vote to become President and decide the direction of the country. Friends of Intelligent Democracy supports:

A constitutional amendment calling for the direct election of the President. The Electoral College system is byzantine and does not intend to represent the will of the people because the Founders believed they were not capable enough to select a leader.;

Replacing the “winner take all” election system in all elections. A system in which one only needs a plurality of the vote to win means that candidates get elected that a majority of the population did not want. Replacing this system with a instant runoff voting (IRV) method or a Ranked Choice Voting system allows for consensus candidates to get elected and the “spoiler effect” to be eliminated without sacrificing the two-party system.

Congressional Elections
The current composition of the legislative branch is marred by partisan gerrymandering, an arbitrary upper limit to the members of the House of Representatives that has not been changed since 1911. Friends of Intelligent Democracy supports:

A constitutional amendment removing the ability of state legislatures to draw districts and giving this ability to a non-partisan commission;

An implementation of the Wyoming Rule, increasing the size of the House of representatives to ensure more local representation.

Voting Rights
In the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in restrictions individual states have placed on the ability for their own citizens to participate in the democratic process, under the guise of providing protection against the fictional issue of voter fraud. These restrictions fail to address a problem that does not exist, and only serve to make it more difficult to vote. Friends of Intelligent Democracy supports:

Making election day a federal holiday, which 71% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans support (according to a study from Pew Research Center) and would allow more people to vote;

Repealing of “exact match” laws, which only serve to make it more complicated to vote and has been shown to disproportionately affect minorities;

Repealing voter ID laws, which will impact those who do not have state issued licenses and has been shown to disproportionately affect minorities;

Implementing early voter periods in each state;

Instituting automatic voter registration laws across all fifty states and American terrirtories

Restoring voting rights to felons who have served their time and allowing prisoners serving time for nonviolent misdemeanors to vote using an absentee ballot;

Apportioning Members of Congress to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and all other American territories.